Can Virtual Reality, without the visual component, be just as immersive?

Bose is convinced that the answer to both of these questions is “yes”. They know that what you hear has a unique power to stimulate your imagination, which is why their latest campaign is all about getting you closer to the things you love.

Bose, the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team and Synergy were incredibly excited to work together to bring this message to life in a ground-breaking new experiential activation that launched at the US Grand Prix in Austin last week. Using a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 Noise-Cancelling Wireless headphones, race fans went into one of the most exclusive places in sport: the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS garage during the final moments before the cars go out onto the track.

The first step for the project team was to capture the actual sounds of the garage during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, using scores of ambisonic and spatial microphones. The next challenge was to create a playback engine that delivers the appropriate sound depending on where you are in the garage and which direction you are facing. This gives the user the complete freedom to explore the entire garage – listening in on the conversations between the drivers and engineers, hearing the whirring of the wheel gun and feeling the heart-pounding moment when the car leaves the garage – all in immersive, clear 3D sound.

Spatial sound experiences are nothing new – but until now they have all been ‘static’. As a user, you stay fixed in one position and the sound moves around you, creating a binaural effect. Where this experience pushes new boundaries is by creating a full 3D sonic landscape, giving the user the complete freedom to move around and explore it in any way they want. Because of that, the experience will be different every time and no two experiences will ever be the same.

While the project team made sure that sound remained the focal point of the experience, they brought in cues to the other senses to help amplify its impact. Projections visualised the sounds, helping users locate their source and range, while sub bass modules made sure that you could truly ‘feel’ the sound too.Like any great brand experience, it really brought the product’s capabilities to the fore. Flicking the noise-cancelling switch at the beginning of the experience provided the immersive sensation of being transported to your own private world. But the real revelation was the wirelessness. You really noticed and appreciated the freedom there was to wander around the space untethered – no cumbersome kit, no wires; just lightweight, comfortable QC35 headphones.

Nearly 4,000 fans came to the downtown venue in Austin over the course of the week to feel what it was like to be inside the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS garage, and the feedback was absolutely brilliant. Even people who spend their whole lives in an F1 garage were blown away by the authenticity of the experience: if Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg think it’s cool, then who are we to argue.For those of you who didn’t make it to Austin last week, check out the digital version, which gives you a small taste of what you missed. And keep your ears to the ground because the experience might just be coming to a place near you soon…

Ever since I picked up my first hockey stick at the age of 12, I was hooked and the aspiration of playing for my country was born. To watch the Team GB women win gold in Rio and stand on the podium was one that I’ll remember forever. Not only has this made me immensely proud to play my sport, but the implications of this victory for hockey – and women’s sport in general – are unimaginable. This medal has paved the way for my sport and, arguably, secured its future success for many years to come.

To understand what winning gold in Rio means for the hockey community, let’s look at its impact on clubs, the media and what this means for the future.

1. Developing #Back2Hockey

Each year England Hockey run #Back2Hockey, an initiative which encourages clubs to engage with their local community to help with each club’s annual recruitment drive. Following the success at Rio, it’s expected that clubs will see a huge increase in participants from local schools and from ‘lapsed’ players (those who haven’t played hockey since leaving school or university).

Building on the first year of #Back2Hockey in 2014 (see my previous blog here), England Hockey have created #HockeyFest – a festival which encourages clubs to not only recruit new players, but celebrate hockey in the community over the course of the summer. Clubs have also been encouraged to hold inter-club tournaments, watch hockey matches live from Rio, as well as promote their activity across social media and through local press. Clubs with an affiliation with a medal winner have hosted coaching sessions with the GB players to inspire new members.

2. Riding the Rio media wave

Over the course of the summer, media interest in hockey has grown significantly. The Olympic Semi-Final and Final were shown live on BBC1 and BBC2 – the first time in the sport’s history. 9 million tuned into the Final, the huge demand pushing back BBC News at Ten to a later time.

Since their return to the UK, the gold medallists have been kept busy with a wide variety of appearances, from BBC Breakfast to A Question of Sport. None more so than Kate Richardson-Walsh, my personal hockey hero, who has arguably cemented herself as a national treasure. Over the years, Kate has been a figurehead for GB Women’s Hockey and was rightly appointed as flag-bearer at the Olympic Closing Ceremony. She first made the headlines at London 2012, where she fractured her jaw in Team GB’s opening match against Japan, but after receiving medical attention, she continued to play in the rest of tournament. The victory at Rio 2016 was the crowning glory of her career and will no doubt inspire a new generation of players.

3. The future – what does this mean now?

So, they’ve inspired a nation over the summer and are now seen across multiple channels promoting their success, but what does the future now hold for hockey in Britain? Well, it’s looking bright. Over the next few years, England Hockey have secured the right to host multiple international, as well as domestic competitions, to be held at London’s Lee Valley Hockey Centre and at Wembley Arena.

From the Men’s Hockey World League in June 2017 to the Women’s World Cup 2018, watching live hockey will be more accessible than ever. Sky Sports broadcasted the Women’s European Championships in 2015 and more coverage is planned. Sky Sports are a champion of GB Hockey and the team regularly feature in the Sky Sports Sportswomen TV programmes.

To ensure that they continue with the momentum created from Rio, England Hockey have given clubs and previous event attendees early access to tickets. The attendance at the first international tournament will be a big test to see if the governing body can utilise this increased interest. My belief, given the reaction post-Rio, is that they can.

A relevant question for the future is how brands can capitalise on the team’s success this summer. Investec, the women’s Principal Sponsor, have quickly started their activity with the team following their return from Rio. They’ve helped to raise the players’ individual profile by having a stylised team photo shoot taking place at a country estate with interviews highlighting interesting facts about them. Ahead of the Olympics, Investec also released a series of emotive and inspiring films which highlighted both key players and the head coach, on their journey to becoming GB Hockey team members. This included one of the team’s superstars, Maddie Hinch, who, with her incredible performance in the Final, helped to grab many ‘armchair’ fans’ attention.

The GB team’s win at Rio has clearly put international hockey and women in sport back on the news agenda. England and GB Hockey are on the right road to maintaining the sport’s momentum; however, more can be done to build excitement and participation ahead of Tokyo 2020.

To do so they must utilise hockey’s stars in innovative and engaging ways to help promote the sport and women’s sport in general. With the upcoming events planned, this is a very exciting time for hockey.

What makes sport so important to you? Why have you made it your mission for other women to embrace this?

Because for me, sport has remained this last bastion of male privilege in which women have been, and continue to be, excluded. And that's just rubbish because sport is great fun - why should women and girls miss out? It's also hugely important pretty much every way you look at it - the United Nations say sport has the power to tackle gender inequality across the globe, EY says sport can help women to smash the glass ceiling in their careers, and you've only got to think about it for two minutes to realise that sport is the perfect antidote to all the body image woes debilitating women in the Western world. With the 'fourth wave of feminism' at play everywhere we look at the moment - from fashion to TV, advertising to politics, I was determined that sport should not be left untouched by this modernising force. Sport needs women, and women - I think - need sport.

There was huge public outcry to the media’s sexism towards the female Olympians at Rio this summer. Were you surprised by the public’s response?

I was thrilled that everyone I knew was talking about a Hungarian swimmer whose husband was given the credit for her medal winning performance. Previously, those stories have barely registered in the sports pages, let alone the mainstream media. But over the summer every women's outlet going - not to mention national newspapers - published story after story about the sexiest episodes plaguing the Games. It was a real watershed moment, women and men outside of the usual sports audience waking up to some of the injustices that routinely take place in sport, and feeling outraged about them. It's all part of the bigger, and very important, picture of a widening slice of the population wanting to engage in sport and caring more about what happens in sport.

Women arguably have less time than ever before to participate and engage with sport. What can brands do to help make sport more accessible women with those time constraints?It's all about changing the usual offerings that sport gives us - thinking outside of the box, thinking from a range of female perspectives. Some of the solutions are obvious - for example Chelsea football club offering a crèche at Stamford Bridge for their fans. I'm pretty sure they're the only Premier League club to do this (something they should really shout about). Or it might be about creating a family led sporting experience e.g. Jessica Ennis-Hill has just launched a series of sporting days out for all the family, which fits in perfectly with families wanting to make the most of their leisure time together, be more active, spend more time outdoors, be healthier. The Cycletta series offers women various distance cycling events, followed by beauty treatments - which might not be everyone's cup of tea (and I know some women who will actively hate that sort of thing!) but ultimately, it's about offering a wider range of experiences for women to connect with, and putting across a very clear message that sport is for women, of all types, backgrounds and ages.

Should brands be leveraging their influence with men’s clubs/sport to help women’s teams/sport – for example should Adidas be pushing Manchester United to create a women’s side?

Yes! For anyone passionate about women's sport the fact that Manchester United continues to ignore women's football is a travesty. But, ethics aside, surely it makes business sense too? Currently sportswear giants are only making use of half of their potential market. Imagine if they could sell female specific football boots and kit to women and girls? At the moment girls and women who play football have to make do with boys and men's kit - even at an elite level (much to my irritation.) Look at the explosion in fitness clothing sales for women, don't sports brands want to capitalise on that to include sport specific kit? Add to that the recent trend for femvertising, and the power of championing women in connection with brands and it seems a no brainer - to me - that doing 'the right thing' by women and sport ticks all the boxes.

There are a lot of sports with big viewerships at the Olympics, take Gymnastics as an example, but are without major sponsors or profile domestically. Why do you think this is?

Because for aeons everyone's just accepted a particular hierarchy in sport, namely that men's Premier League football attracts all the cash and all the attention and not much else is worth bothering about. But the exciting thing about doing something new, and taking a risk, is how new ideas can fly and really take off. And that's a great creative space to be getting involved in, and potentially financially rewarding too.The Women's Boat Race is the classic example - Helena Morrissey bought the event for a song, and got a 10-fold return, as well as front and back page coverage of her brand in doing so, because she created a moment for the sport, a historical event. Last week I received an email advertising the gymnastics World Cup taking place at The O2 in London, marketed by Matchroom - Barry and Eddie Hearn's business. No one ever usually bothers with World Cups in Gymnastics, they're below World and European champs in the pecking order....and yet, as soon as I read the email I wanted to buy the family day ticket so I could take my daughter to watch the sessions because she - like millions of others - watched the Rio Olympics, thought, "wow", and asked, "Mummy when can we go and see the gymnastics in real life?"

This week we are celebrating Women’s Sport Week #WSW16 with a take-over of our blog & social channels.We are passionate about raising awareness of, and reducing, the gender gap that exists in sport - in participation, media coverage and within our industry.

We believe that brands have a massive opportunity to engage with 7 million active women by investing in women’s sport, raising its profile and making a real difference.This week we will bring you a number of different perspectives from the world of sport - Ruth Holdaway CEO of Women in Sport, Baroness Sue Campbell Head of Women’s Football at The FA and Author of Eat, Sweat, Play Anna Kessel along with lots of our own thoughts and opinion.

There's golf, and there's the Ryder Cup. Like nothing else in golf, it dominates the headlines, courts controversy, ignites social media, and draws in millions of non-fans. So how did what started as a low-key exhibition match in the 1920s, and which was dying by the 1970s, become a sports marketing phenomenon?Re-invention

The Ryder Cup heralded a trend which has shaped modern sport: the creation of new and re-imagined formats. Consider for example the huge success and influence of the Rugby World Cup (born in the 80s), football’s Premier League and Champions League (the 90s), cricket’s Twenty20 and IPL, and most recently eSports. And there are many more.

So it was with the Ryder Cup. Following years of predictable and overwhelming US victories over a hopelessly outmatched GB & Ireland team, by 1977 the event was on its last legs. But from 1979, at the inspired suggestion of Jack Nicklaus, GB & Ireland became a European team to make the matches more competitive. And the rest, as they say is history.

Seve

Three players, who will all cast giant shadows over this Ryder Cup, stand apart for their marketing impact on golf: the recently-passed Arnold Palmer, who with Mark McCormack as his salesman, led golf into the TV era and made it a big business; Tiger Woods, the sport’s first truly global icon whose impact was only truly felt after his disgrace and withdrawal; and Seve Ballesteros, who transformed the image and appeal of European golf in general and the Ryder Cup in particular.

When Nicklaus made his suggestion, Seve was the inspiration. Seve duly became the talisman of the new European team and inspired its first game-changing victories over the US in the 80s. Brilliant, charismatic and fiercely competitive - especially against the US players and galleries who he perceived as having slighted him early in his career - Ballesteros was, above all, the catalyst for the Ryder Cup phenomenon.

Less Is More

One of modern sport’s biggest problems is that there’s too much of it. Football, rugby, tennis, cricket and golf have all over-supplied the marketplace, leading to numerous negative on- and off-field consequences. This has increasingly worked to the Ryder Cup’s advantage. It doesn’t come around very often, but when it does, we can’t wait. Less is more.

Uniqueness

Above all, one thing makes the Ryder Cup unique, and uniquely powerful as a sports marketing platform: it’s Europe versus the USA. This happens nowhere else in major sport. Nowhere else in major sport does Europe compete under one banner, uniting hundreds of millions of fans. And it’s easy to forget that sport in the USA is a primarily a domestic affair: the dominant US team sports are all contested internally. As a sporting nation, the USA rarely ventures outside its borders onto the world stage. So when it does, it’s rare, and it’s a big deal. And this year, owing to Brexit, this particular aspect of the Ryder Cup story is even deeper.

Otherness

The Ryder Cup is entirely unlike the golf that we see week-in, week-out, all year. Tournament golf is selfish: the Ryder Cup is selfless. It’s not about individuals playing for a title and multi-million-dollar purses. It’s about teams, about playing as part of the team, about winning for the team, and – that extreme rarity in big sport - not about money – the players aren’t paid to appear in the Ryder Cup. And this works and appeals in a way that tournament golf simply doesn’t. It gives the fans a team to support, and that in turn makes it bigger, more emotional, and easier to buy into than tournament golf - remember, worldwide, it’s team sport that rules. It makes heroes and villains out of players who, ordinarily, we don’t passionately support or oppose in their tournament identities. And most importantly, it works because it demands of the players something different, something other, something somehow better.

Controversy

It may not like it, but the fact is that sport thrives on controversy. Controversy creates today’s stories, history’s legends, and tomorrow’s fans. Controversy sells. And since the Ryder Cup was re-invented in 1979, and the contest became as close and as fierce as anything that sport can offer, controversy has never been far away: indeed, it’s become part of the event’s DNA and its global appeal, part of why we look forward to it, part of what we expect from it. Golf’s traditionalists might not like it, but that controversy is another element that sets the Ryder Cup apart, and gives it an appeal way beyond golf’s normal fan base and media footprint.

Defining Moments

We regularly tune into marquee events hoping to see something special, only to be disappointed. But since its re-invention, the Ryder Cup has never disappointed. Every event since 1979 has produced unforgettable, defining moments that have entered the sporting – not just golfing – pantheon. And this isn’t about serendipity: it’s the inevitable result of the contest being re-invented to become even and unpredictable, blending perfectly with a format which is guaranteed to produce moments that win – or lose – the match. The Ryder Cup is a perfect sports marketing template.

It’s been another year to remember for Synergy and our clients. So, with 2015 heading for the history books, in time-honoured fashion we’ve taken a little time to record and reflect some of our highlights – and there have been so many that we couldn’t quite whittle it down to ten, so eleven it is. We hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoyed living it!

1. Winning Sport Industry Agency of the Year

Where else to begin but Synergy winning Agency Of The Year for the second time at the BT Sport Industry Awards back in April. Acknowledged as the biggest and most prestigious award in UK sports marketing and sponsorship, the Sport Industry judges reserved particular praise for Synergy’s creativity and vibrant culture – the latter being clearly on display in the celebrations which lasted through the night and into the next day!

2. Front and Centre at Rugby World Cup 2015

We were proud to play our part in the biggest and best Rugby World Cup yet, working with four of the RWC tournament sponsors – Canterbury, Coca-Cola, Emirates and MasterCard – as well as ITV RWC broadcast sponsor SSE and England Rugby partner BMW. Roll on Japan 2019!

3. Helping SSE take the lead on women’s football

One of our proudest moments in 2015 was to support SSE in a landmark agreement to become the first ever major sponsor of the Women’s FA Cup and commit to grass-roots funding that will make a real difference to girls’ football. The visionary nature of the sponsorship and the success of our SSE #GirlsTakeover campaign has set the benchmark and hopefully paved the way for many more brands to get behind women’s sport.

4. Celebrating Capital One’s Little Legends

This year we re-imagined a showpiece Wembley football final for Capital One. To climax the 2014/15 Capital One Cup campaign, we used the final to showcase and celebrate football’s ‘Little Legends’, handing over 45 key roles at the final to kids between the ages of 6-14, including hanging up the kit, carrying flags, delivering the match ball, singing the national anthem, performing the half-time entertainment and delivering a match report for a national newspaper!

5. Taking SynergyLive To The Next Level

Back in 2013 we were the world’s first sports marketing agency to launch a real-time social media service, SynergyLive. This year we took it to a new level. Two examples. We helped rugby fans to #seebeyond with Accenture, producing fast-turnaround data-visualisations designed for sharing, such as this.

Following the overwhelming success of our first Royal Salute film, which generated millions of views worldwide, we teamed up again with the brand this year for another iconic film, The Rider, featuring Nakoa Decoite, the big wave surfer and polo pro. Shot on location in Maui, the film tells the incredible story of one of the world’s most uniquely talented and intriguing personalities. Enjoy…

7. Making The MARTINI Terrazza The Talk Of The Town

We’ve proud to have once again helped bring MARTINI’s legendary style to F1, taking the now-legendary MARTINI Terrazas to six cities from Barcelona to Sao Paulo. The Terrazzas treated almost 50,000 beautiful people to each city’s very best music, art, fashion and food, making MARTINI F1′s coolest and most desired brand.

8. Keeping Sport On The Election Agenda

They say sport and politics shouldn’t mix, but we took a different view back in May during the UK General Election, spotlighting the surprising (or unsurprising, depending on your point of view) lack of sports strategy in the major parties’ manifestos. The result was one of our most-read blog posts of the year.

9. Discovering Different With Nikon

2015 saw Synergy work with Nikon for the first time, creating the #DiscoverDifferent campaign – unforgettable photographic experiences curated by Nikon experts, revealing the hidden delights of some of England’s most iconic cities.

10. Taking A Shirt Launch To New Heights

Another rugby highlight from 2015, and our biggest, most innovative and effective shirt launch ever. Our ‘Launched By The Loyal’ campaign for Canterbury enabled thousands of superfans to launch the England Rugby World Cup shirt simultaneously from their social media feeds, led by three who sky-dived a giant replica from 12,500 feet over Stonehenge with the Red Devils. The results: huge media coverage and record shirt sales.

11. And Finally…Opening Synergy Stateside

Our final highlight of another amazing year is of course the launch of Synergy in the US, which saw us welcome back Dom Curran as US CEO (once a Synergist, always a Synergist) and Ryder Cup Worldwide Partner Standard Life Investments as a founding client. Synergy US is go!

As another year comes to an end, now seems a suitable time to reflect on a whirlwind 12 months for Synergy.

Here we outline some of our most innovative work in 2014, what the wider implications are for the industry, and what other campaigns have caught our eye and set the benchmark for what will undoubtedly be another busy and exciting year:

JANUARY

What we did:

2014 kicked off slightly early for some of the team at Synergy, who were at Twickenham activating IG’s inaugural sponsorship of The Big Game. Through the ‘Big Game, Bright Lights’ campaign, we looked to capitalise on the down-time that half-time offers and re-invigorate the crowd for the second half. By innovatively using Twickenham’s LED inventory, fans experienced an audio-visual spectacular that connected IG’s brand with Harlequins and gave fans the chance to win some amazing prizes.

Industry insight:

Half-time at sports games have often felt like a necessary evil for sports fans in the UK; a short break to allow the players to recover and fans to visit the facilities. The Pepsi Half-time show at the SuperBowl in February emphasised that US sport is still the benchmark for half-time entertainment, but IG’s work at Twickenham showed that, with a clear insight and innovative use of standard sponsorship inventory, the half-time break may no longer simply be used as an excuse to get the drinks in.

FEBRUARY

What we did:

The RBS 6 Nations tends to dominate the sporting agenda in February, and is often when Synergy is at its most active. As part of the RBS 6 Nations activation, Synergy helped to produce a series of films based on defining moments from the tournament. These films truly encapsulated the values of sportsmanship, perseverance and teamwork that the brand and the fans love about The Championship.

Industry insight:

Capturing sport’s inherent ‘truths’ like this, and amplifying them to produce content of interest, based on real insight, is a gift that fans want to receive. Guinness also managed this feat, with their films in honour of Jonny Wilkinson, Shane Williams and Bill McLaren, whilst Barclays’s impressively moving Premier League film captured the essence of the match day experience that makes football so special for fans, and so valued by brands.

MARCH

What we did:

The Capital One Cup Final in March saw the climax of Capital One’s season-long campaign focused on ‘supporting the supporters’. As part of the Final activity, Capital One looked to maximise the audience of the final by offering free Now TV passes to those not lucky enough to have access to Sky Sports. This was a big gesture that delivered true value to football fans, who would otherwise have missed the first final of the 2013/14 season.

Industry insight:

Extending the true excitement of an event beyond those lucky enough to attend is a challenge facing a number of brands and rightsholders. However, alongside Capital One’s work, there have been a number of other examples in 2014 of brands bringing events closer to non-ticket-holders. Two that we particularly enjoyed were The National Theatre’s continued commitment to its National Theatre Live programme, which involves live screenings of theatre shows at local cinemas, and Manchester United’s partnership with Google+ that allowed fans around the world to ‘be’ at Old Trafford by appearing live on the pitch-side perimeter boards.

APRIL

What we did:

In order to kick off MasterCard’s partnership with Rugby World Cup 2015, Synergy created a photo moment on the Thames involving All Blacks legend Dan Carter kicking conversions over Tower Bridge. As emphasised on the Synergy blog, a good photo idea has to be reinforced with insight and good management in order to be successful. Both of these boxes were emphatically ticked here, with the resultant images capturing the imagination of the national media and providing one of the most compelling sports PR shots in recent memory.

Industry insight:

Other striking PR shots that grabbed our attention this year included the Yorkshire Building Society dying 150 sheep yellow in honour of the Tour de France and Puma’s water projection on The Thames to launch the new Arsenal kit. Once again, these examples looked fresh and innovative and therefore excited the media and fans alike.

What we did:

BUPA’s ‘My First Step’ campaign looked to get more people running by emphasising the ease with which people could start, or re-start, training. As part of the planning, BUPA and Synergy found that 60% of UK adults believed that their bodies would not be up to running once they reached 60, a myth BUPA looked to dispel as part of the campaign. 63 year-old non-runner Jennie Bond was recruited as an ambassador, as we followed her training journey that culminated in her completing the BUPA London 10,000 event.

Industry insight:

Consumer insight is clearly crucial for a successful sponsorship campaign, with the best examples based on thorough planning. Whilst the success of the ‘My First Step’ campaign was built on a relevant and robust consumer insight, we make no excuses for including another piece of Synergy work from 2014 that emphasised the importance of understanding a target audience. Ahead of Round 4 of the Capital One Cup, Capital One gave Brian Clough-style green jumpers to Nottingham Forest’s away fans at Tottenham as a tribute to their legendary manager. The story and images received widespread acclaim and, whilst the execution was impressive, the success of the story was thanks to the team’s insight around the 10th anniversary of Clough’s death and his unforgettable status within the game.

JUNE

What we did:

June at Synergy signalled the launch of Coca-Cola’s ParkLives project. Following many months of in-depth planning and research, the aim of getting more people more active more often was brought to life through this bespoke programme in partnership with local councils, which provides free activity classes for local people in local parks in cities across the UK.

Industry insight:

The planning for the ParkLives campaign re-iterated that self-created programmes can often be the best way for brands to achieve their CSR goals, rather than simply buying an off-the-shelf proposition. Another great example of this in 2014 was Western Union’s ‘Pass’ programme around the brand’s UEFA Europa League sponsorship. Each successful pass made during the competition signified a contribution of financial support for quality education of young people around the world.

JULY

What we did:

The SSE team at Synergy were up in Glasgow at the 2014 Commonwealth Games for the culmination of the brand’s GoGlasgow campaign. One of our many roles up in Scotland was managing SSE’s experiential activity on Glasgow Green, which allowed fans to capture a unique photo of themselves supporting their nation. Importantly this activity linked seamlessly into SSE’s wider campaign and fed into a digital leaderboard that acted as a real-time tracker on the conversations around the Games.

Industry insight:

Whilst by no means a new trend, by linking the experiential activity to the wider campaign and creating a strong digital output, the reach of SSE’s footprint went far beyond those lucky people at the Glasgow Green live site, and therefore generated significant engagement levels. Another really simple idea that we loved from this year was Nescafé’s activity in Croatia that again blended the online and offline world simply and effectively to create a fun and shareable experience.

AUGUST

What we did:

A couple of crazy days in late August saw Synergy manage the media launches for both the Guinness Pro 12 and Aviva Premiership 2014/15 rugby seasons, and give journalists, staff and fans unique access to two of the biggest club rugby competitions in Europe. The Guinness launch focused on staff engagement at Diageo’s global HQ in London, which gave employees the chance to quiz the Pro 12 captains; whilst Aviva’s event at Twickenham harnessed the Twitter reach of several of the players by creating the first ever ‘Captains selfie’ which provided fans with a fun, new viewpoint of the launch.

Industry insight:

One of the obvious benefits of sponsorship as a marketing tool is the ability for a brand to give their target audience behind-the-scenes access to something about which they care passionately. Whilst not specifically a launch, The FA’s use of the trophy to promote the sense of adventure around the upcoming third round of The FA Cup is a heart-warming example of a rightsholder giving fans unique access to something special (in this case, young fans being able to take the trophy on a series of their own adventures).

SEPTEMBER

What we did:

2014 has been a massive year for Martini and Synergy, as we have helped take the iconic stripes back to the Formula 1 grid through the title partnership of Williams Martini Racing. In September, at Martini’s home race at Monza, a massive pan-European trade promotion reached its climax, with consumers and trade partners having the chance to experience an exclusive Italian weekend. This included rooftop parties, power boating on Lake Como and, of course, access to the Italian Grand Prix itself, and Synergy were on-hand to ensure this massive operation ran smoothly.

Industry insight:

Global sponsorships don’t get much bigger that a Formula 1 car deal, and Martini have used their sponsorship effectively to create unique promotions that engage with their target audiences. We also loved Coca-Cola’s huge FIFA World Cup on-pack promotion – offering consumers the chance to win one of a million footballs. For a brand that is committed to helping people get more active, this was a bold statement of intent. The additional element of a 10p donation to StreetGames for every purchase showed a brand that is embracing the Social Era and also reiterated that sponsorship, shopper marketing and CSR can work brilliantly together when applied correctly.

OCTOBER

What we did:

October was all about The 2014 Ryder Cup, and the BMW and SLI teams at Synergy used their sponsorships in very different ways to achieve their objectives. BMW focused on generating sales leads and bringing fans closer to the action, with all activity centring on the #DriveYourTeam hashtag, whilst SLI used the tournament to demonstrate their ‘World Class As Standard ‘proposition. Two unique content strategies helped to achieve these objectives, with BMW focusing on using Twitter to create relevant and reactive golf content for fans and SLI creating long-form video content with ambassadors Sam Torrance and Curtis Strange to connect the World Class attributes of The Ryder Cup with Standard Life Investments.

Industry insight:

As we all know, a single sporting platform can be approached in very different ways, and a third brand (this time a non-sponsor) who once again used The Ryder Cup as a prime PR opportunity was Paddy Power, and we loved their approach, using a tongue-in-cheek appearance from Nigel Farage to extol the virtues of Europe coming together.

NOVEMBER

What we did:

The QBE Internationals are always a busy time in Synergy’s calendar and this year we were busy creating fantastic social content for our new client, and England kit manufacturer, Canterbury. Using Canterbury’s innovative new shirt fabric as our literal canvas and creating messaging that linked the product with the team, we were able to put an innovative spin on real-time messaging and put the shirt at the heart of Canterbury’s content.

Industry insight:

As the fan appetite for real-time content continues to grow, the evolving challenge for brands is how to get serious cut-through from their communications. We therefore also liked Virgin Media’s real-time newsroom during the Commonwealth Games, which created fun, amusing and – most importantly – differentiated sponsor content throughout the Games.

DECEMBER

What we did:

December has seen another milestone reached for Synergy, as the first instalment in a series of Royal Salute videos inspired by the world of horsemanship, reached over a million views on YouTube (across four geo-tagged edits for different markets). This visually stunning video beautifully encapsulates the bond between man and horse, and is perfectly in keeping with a luxury brand with a strong heritage in polo.

Industry insight:

We have thought about some of the other content we have enjoyed in 2014 and in no particular order, three of our favourites include:

The ultimate ambusher pulled off a masterstroke – brilliantly framing the key moment before a game (the moment when Beats headphones have an obvious and key role for the players) with a little help from among others – Neymar (and his dad), Fabregas, Van Persie, Lebron, Serena and even the two stars of the World Cup final – Schweinsteiger and Gotze. The presence of the pantomime villain Suarez didn’t even detract from it!

We loved how Nike brought out the personalities of their superstars and used animation in a fresh and interesting way, helping them to get around the obvious problems of bringing together a wealth of their talent for a shoot. The medium also opened the door brilliantly to the unique #AskZlatan real-time content series.

A very different video – and one that doesn’t rely on any talent costs or high production values – but in an incredibly focused, simple and beautiful way reinforces Always’ commitment to empowering girls globally.

What do all of these videos have in common? All four of them are (in very different ways) tapping into something of genuine interest and relevance – whether a moment or a movement – and therefore people in their millions have actively chosen to watch, talk about and share them.

For Synergy, 2014 has unquestionably been a year to savour in sponsorship – here’s to another great year for the industry in 2015.